This invention relates to visual display arrangements and more particularly to a three-dimensional (3-D) visual display arrangement.
There are many different types of 3-D visual display arrangements on the market which in the true sense of the word are not "real" 3-D visual display arrangements, since actually without viewing aids, such as, 3-D glasses, the visual display is a two-dimensional display.
Levitation as defined in Webster's Dictionary is "the phenomena or illusion of moving heavy objects, such as the human body, in the air without support." Levitation has in the past been considered an art practiced only by mystics and magicians. However, a recent announcement in the following articles (1) "Optical Levitation Achieved With a Laser Beam", Optical Spectra, Dec. 1971, page 18 and (2) "Laser Beam Levitates Tiny Glass Spheres", Laser Sphere, Nov. 1971, report that scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories has caused levitation to take on a new dimension. This new dimension is the ability of a laser beam to levitate a particle from a reference plane and to cause this particle to remain suspended visibly unsupported. This phenomena will be referred to herein as "optical levitation".
Optical levitation is based on the principle that the laser beam exerts a radiation pressure on an object such that the object can be raised off a glass reference surface and held aloft for hours in a stable position by a laser beam. The object so levitated may be a small transparent glass sphere. The radiation pressure from the laser beam not only counteracts gravity and raises the particle, but also traps the particle in the beam and prevents it from slipping out of the beam sideways. The beam in effect creates an optical bottle.